Understanding and Leveraging BIM Efforts for Electrical Contractors

Abstract Contractors must carefully manage their cash outflows (e.g., for materials to enable their work) and inflows (after the work) to be profitable, particularly in an economy that is still recovering from the 2008-2012 recession that grew out of the mortgage crisis. Their importance for business success is undisputed, as bankruptcies due to insufficient cash flow underline. Therefore, this study investigated current business practices of electrical contracting companies of different sizes with respect to their financial planning and management. A detailed questionnaire was developed with best guidelines on survey studies and pilot testing. It was sent to members of the National Electrical Contractors Association. Respondent anonymity was ensured. The survey recorded demographics, business practices, operating conditions, and other important factors using 57 subquestions. Each section allowed feedback to clarify the numerical responses. Responses were well distributed across company sizes, so that the results are representative for the entire industry. The results indicated that contractors generally have a substantial amount of experience in financial decision making. Their approach is conservative and focuses on healthy growth. Yet, opportunities to fine-tune business practices are identified, e.g., immediate invoicing, considering discounts to accelerate payment receipts, attempting to negotiate and use favorable credit terms, reviewing payment performance, and performing frequent cash flow forecasts. Some of the differences in the responses can be attributed to different company sizes. To help especially smaller companies in planning their cash flow, a spreadsheet for implementation has been created.

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Indicator Variables Model of Firm’s Size-Profitability Relationship of Electrical Contractors Using Financial and Economic Data

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management ◽

10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:2(192) ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 129 (2) ◽

pp. 192-197 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Abdurahman Ammar ◽

Awad S. Hanna ◽

Erik V. Nordheim ◽

Jeffrey S. Russell

Keyword(s):

Economic Data ◽

Indicator Variables ◽

Relationship Of ◽

Electrical Contractors

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Nature of Occupational Incidents among Electrical Contractors

10.20944/preprints201912.0411.v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Pouya Gholizadeh ◽

Behzad Esmaeili

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Occupational Safety ◽

Body Parts ◽

Health Administration ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Statistical Probability ◽

Construction Accidents ◽

The Impact ◽

Electrical Contractors ◽

Fatal Injuries

Electrical contractors have experienced a rise in occupational fatalities in recent years. In 2017, electrical contractors also had the second highest number of non-fatal injuries among specialty trade contractors. Identifying statistically significant dependencies between these catastrophic outcomes and a handful of well-defined contributing factors in construction accidents offers a first step in mitigating the risks of construction accidents in this trade. Therefore, this study used methodologies of descriptive and quantitative statistics to identify the contributing factors most affecting occupational accident outcomes among electrical contracting enterprises, given an accident occurred. Accident reports were collected from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s fatality and catastrophe database. To ensure the reliability of the data, the team manually codified more than 600 incidents through a comprehensive content analysis using injury-classification standards. Inclusive of both fatal and non-fatal injuries, the results showed that most accidents happened in nonresidential buildings, new construction, and small projects (i.e., $50,000 or less). The main source of injuries manifested in parts and materials (46%), followed by tools, instruments, and equipment (19%), and structure and surfaces (16%). The most frequent types of injuries were fractures (31%), electrocutions (27%), and electrical burns (14%); the main injured body parts were upper extremities (25%), head (23%), and body system (18%). Among non-fatal cases, falls (37%), exposure to electricity (36%), and contact with objects (19%) caused most injuries; among fatal cases, exposure to electricity was the leading cause of death (50%), followed by falls (28%) and contact with objects (19%). The analysis also investigated the impact of several accident factors on the degree of injuries and found significant effects from such factors such as project type, source of injury, cause of injuries, injured part of body, nature of injury, and event type. In other words, the statistical probability of a fatal accident—given an accident occurrence—changes significantly based on the degree of these factors. Beyond these outcomes, the described content-analysis methodology contributes to the accident-analysis body of knowledge by providing a framework for codifying data from accident reports to facilitate future analysis and modeling attempts (e.g., developing logistic regression models) to subsequently mitigate more injuries in other fields.

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